At Goose Island
our brewers love experimenting with their beer almost as much as they love
drinking it. This unique blend of Bourbon County Brand Stout was aged in rye
whiskey barrels with loads of whole Michigan cherries. This is one massive
beer the brewers are proud to finally let you share with your friends at
home - or not. After your first sip, you'll agree, this beer has some real
stones.

Taste: Chocolate covered cherries with whiskey. This is nothing short of
amazing! Cherries punch you in the face, followed by a chocolate/slight vanilla
middle with a Rye Whiskey aftertaste. The booze at the end is very subdued, and
is very impressively masked, considering the abv. The ending is cherry sweet
with some slight bitterness from the booze. I'm getting warm inside quite
quickly...

Mouthfeel: Thick, but not too thick, which is making me realize that this fact
is aiding my fast pace of drinking this. It's not quite as thick as regular BCBS,
but nowhere near as thin as World Wide Stout. Pretty similar mouthfeel to KBS.

Overall: Dessert in a bottle. This is definitely one of the best beers I've ever
drank. It's insanely drinkable fresh at 13.7 abv. I can only see age doing this
well as it will surely get smoother with time, and be even more drinkable, if
that's possible. Without a doubt, I'd have to put this personally in front of
regular BCBS and BCBCS.

Goose Island History
When the first Goose Island Brewpub opened its doors in 1988, domestic,
mass-produced beer was deeply ingrained in Midwestern culture. The craft beer
industry was still in its infancy, with only a handful of brewpubs in existence
in the Midwest. In his travels across Europe, beer-lover John Hall had enjoyed a
distinctive local brew in each region he visited. Hall was convinced that
Midwesterners could produce beers as good or better than those he’d tasted in
his travels. Living on the shore of the largest system of fresh water on the
planet Earth, in a city with rapidly evolving tastes – John decided that his
hometown, Chicago, would be the ideal place to do just that.

The key to building interest in craft beer, Hall decided, was to allow consumers
to watch the brewing process – while providing them with the then-novel
experience of enjoying a wide variety of distinctive beers that had been
produced on-site. Hall wanted to not only cater to his customers’ tastes, but to
challenge them as well. Goose Island’s brewers set to work crafting a diverse
selection of unique beers – and on Friday, May 13, 1988 the Goose Island Brewpub
was born.

It turned out that John was right; Chicagoans palates evolved rapidly once Goose
Island’s Brewpub opened its doors and introduced the city to distinctive craft
beer. By 1995, the brewpub had become so popular that John Hall decided to open
a larger brewery and bottling plant to keep up with demand. Finding still more
room for growth, in 1999 Hall opened a second Goose Island Brewpub just a
stone’s throw away from historic Wrigley Field.

Today, Goose Island continues to brew an innovative selection of over 50 craft
beers at the brewpub, the best of which are then bottled at our Fulton Street
brewery. Goose Island beers are now enjoyed in 26 states and Europe.